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Effectiveness Standards Urged for Alternative Health Treatments

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 April 2005, 03:00 CDT

COMPLEMENTARY and alternative medical treatments should be held to the same clinical effectiveness standards as conventional medicine, according to a recent Institute of Medicine report.

The January report, "Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States," recognizes that more than one-third of American adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine, spending more than $30 billion yearly on such treatments as acupuncture, herbal remedies and dietary supplements. Its authors recommended "that the same principles and standards of evidence and treatment effectiveness apply to all treatments, whether currently labeled as conventional medicine or (complementary and alternative medicine)."

Written to assist the National Institutes of Health in developing research methods and setting priorities for evaluating products and approaches within complementary and alternative medicine, the report also assesses what is known about Americans' reliance on such therapies. Fewer than 40 percent of complementary and alternative medicine users have disclosed their use of such therapies to their physicians. More than half of physicians reported that they would encourage patients to talk to them about using alternative medicine and would refer them for treatments that fall into that category. However, much is still unknown about how and why people use such therapies in conjunction with or in lieu of conventional therapies.

Adam Burke, PhD, MPH, LAc, co-chair of APHA's Complementary and Alternative Health Practices Special Primary Interest Group, said the report was "a very useful contribution to the evolving science and practice" of complementary and alternative medicine. When it comes to holding complementary and alternative treatments to the same scientific standards as traditional medicine, Burke said he was glad to see the report's authors acknowledge the challenge it poses to researchers.

For example, traditional Chinese medicine often involves a variety of therapies - such as acupuncture and herbal remedies - that are administered together, and "unbundling this protocol for the sake of matching a 'gold standard,' randomized, controlled trial may result in an inferior treatment," he said.

"In light of this challenge... the suggestion of methodological flexibility is highly laudable and should be promoted and supported in the (complementary and alternative medicine) research community," Burke said.

The report also noted a need for research into popular complementary and alternative medicine therapies as well as a need to prioritize such research so information is distributed to the public quickly.

The report is online at .

- Donya C. Arias

Copyright American Public Health Association Mar 2005

Source: Nation's Health, The

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